French report links Newcastle with move for Tanguy Ndombele

Earlier today I posted an article about how nobody really knows about what’s going on with Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele and where he might end up at the end of the summer transfer window. Well, we still don’t know anything, but we have another rumor!

French media outlet Media Foot is reporting that Newcastle United is now showing interest in signing Tanguy this summer, and is even “in pole position.” That’s despite the continued interest in a loan from Serie A side Villarreal.

Now, look, I’ll be honest — there’s not much here. This reads like an unsourced Mirror transfer rumor writeup, only in French. It’s the first time I’ve seen Newcastle included in anything linked directly to an outgoing Tottenham player, so I feel like we should be super skeptical of this one until (unless?) it emerges somewhere a little more reliable. The report also claims Spurs want €50m for Tanguy this summer, which feels almost risible when you type it out knowing all of Tanguy’s history at Tottenham.

In other words, the xBatCountry is pretty high on this rumor. But what we do know is Newcastle have money, and they’ve also lost Voldemort Jonjo Shelvey for at least three months with a hamstring injury. So it’s not inconceivable that they could be in the market for a offensively-minded midfielder. And while Newcastle is owned by a problematic petrostate, I’m not sure I’d necessarily have any problem with accepting Newcastle’s money to take away our problematic (in a very different way) record signing.

So keep your powder dry on this one. It very well could be nothing and we have no real evidence that this is something to track, but in the rare case that it does turn into a thing that happens, you read it here first!